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  • From: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [BL] photo manager for BL
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:46:32 +0000 (UTC)

My partner would like something similar to iPhoto for linux. The bigger photo managers require Gnome or KDE but I found one called MaPiVi that uses a few command-line tools from Image Magick (to do minor editing such as crop, adjust colors), and parts of libjpeg (for resizing and rotating jpegs), and also requires perl and perl/tk.

The precompiled Windows version is 4 MB (plus an additional 400K basic package with some perl modules in it and instructions). Windows supposedly already has perl, as do bigger linuxes. The instructions for Windows are far from clear, especially since they tell you that all the pieces are already included in most linuxes. (Someone cut and pasted from the linux section?).

tk is an extension to perl for creating GUIs, that must be added separately as a Tk.pm module not in the perl.tgz package, available from CPAN (after installing the perl package, or at least register.pm in addition to the minimal set of .pm files that I already have on my computer for compiling something else). There is a CPAN.pm perl module that handles the downloads. (For Windows type ppm at command line). I should type while online:

perl -MCPAN -e shell
(here it complained about ./warnings/register.pm which I don't have)
install Bundle::CPAN
reload cpan
install Tk

Steven or anyone else, would you like to tackle this compilation?
The full perl takes up at least 5MB. I would continue to just add missing pieces instead.

Or can someone recommend another photo manager that lets you organize photos and do rotating, resizing and cropping from within the program? My partner would prefer something smaller and simpler than iPhoto that lets him keep photos in whatever directory he chooses rather than one big library, not keep photo information in three places (this one keeps it all in the original file), and not display thumbnails of all his photos every time he starts the program (wasting hundreds of M of memory, the suggested solution being add another 256MB RAM). He would like to display thumbnails of just what is in a particular small directory. He wants to edit only file name, date and time apart from the image itself. Does not need it to send photos as emails or upload to or make webpages (MaPiVi does HTML too) or wallpaper, or print. Just organize, make thumbnails, and minor editing. Only jpegs.

There are many linux photo managers listed at

http://www.linuxappfinder.com/graphics/photomanagers

They sort by rating, and Digikam (KDE) was first, followed by MaPiVi (perl/Tk), KFlikr (KDE, upload to Flikr), Picasa (WINE), blueMarine (java), F-Spot (Gtk - GNOME), Lphoto (Qt, python,, Linspire, domain name expired), jBrout (python, Gtk - rotates but does not resize), ImgSeek (Qt, python), flPhoto (FLTK toolkit needed - does much more including redeye and other image formats, requires gPhoto to import photos from camera, prints)....Gallery (web-based album, uses PHP and also Image Magick, netpbm, libjpeg programs to manage and edit), KoffeePhoto (java, 1GHz processor).

I don't want KDE or GNOME or WINE or java. Does Gtk imply GNOME? Would php (Gallery), python/Qt (ImgSeek) be smaller/simpler than perl/tk?

Gallery seems relatively small (3.7MB download for minimal tar.gz and you can download netpbm and imagemagick and other things as modules).

Many of these are precompiled for Debian or Ubuntu or OpenSuSE (probably recent versions which need recent computers).

Personally I would just use zgv (or xv) and netpbm (which can rotate, crop, resize, change colors, but you need to think while using it). He wants to crop with a mouse. xv can make thumbnails but again, you need to think (you tell it to make them). Could one combine xv with Image Magick (which I have not used), both run inside X? I have the libjpeg programs (for rotating and resizing). He would ideally like the option of seeing only the cropped part of a photo rather than the whole photo with a rectangle over it (and background parts lighter or darker).

He does not need GIMP for editing. There are probably some much smaller paint programs for linux anyway, for removing red-eye.

Sindi Keesan




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